Christ: real, not symbolic.

In our May edition (pp. 12-13) we made known the Eucharistic miracle which took place in Naju, South Korea, on September 22, 1995, when a devout Catholic, Mrs. Julia Kim, received Holy Communion under the species of bread and wine which then visibly changed on her tongue into a tiny palpitating heart of flesh and blood.

Reactions to the picture varied. Some thought the photo shocking, others even gross. What is this, they asked. How can this be? Is this authentic? Why this person? What is the purpose of it all? None of these questions are difficult to answer.

It is not useful, for example, to ask why this person and not somebody else: God's goodness in bestowing His gifts is--and always has been--beyond human scrutiny. As for its authenticity, it has been documented--photographically and by the personal eyewitness account of one bishop, two priests and over a dozen devout Catholic men and women.

What about the miracle's purpose? Let us remember that our culture has been secularized to such an extent that even many believing Catholics have become confused about the Mass. Even among regular church-goers, the correct understanding of the Eucharistic Sacrifice has begun to fade.

This declining belief was documented in a 1994 survey, indicating that a majority of North American church-going Catholics now see the Eucharistic Sacrifice as only a symbolic ritual (See the editorial "How is this possible?" C.I., May 1995).

In reality, the Sacrifice of the Mass is the enactment by Christ of His own Sacrifice of the Cross on Calvary. Christ is both the agent and the victim, with the priest acting "in his person" and the bread and wine becoming His Body and Blood, not symbolically, but "really." [For a concise summary, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1373-1381; for an authoritative discussion, see the Encyclical of Pope Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei -- The Holy Eucharist, Sept 1965; for a reliable theology, see J.T.O'Connor, The Hidden Manna, San Francisco, Ignatius Press, 1988, pp. 268-287].

Miracles

Miracles, by definition, are supernatural; i.e., not contrary to nature, but above it. As such they are beyond our understanding but not beyond affirming what we believe already.

Wherever Christ found little faith, He lamented its absence ("It's an evil and unfaithful generation that asks for a sign," Mt 12:39; 16:4; "And he did not work many miracles there because of their lack of faith," Mt 13:57). Wherever He did find it, however, He considered it a blessed condition ("Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe," Jn 20:29). Thus Jesus performed many miracles to confirm and strengthen the faith of those who had come to believe His teaching.

Among these miracles were the two multiplications of loaves, foreshadowing the giving of His Body and Blood at the Last Supper under the form of bread and wine. From that time onwards, states the Council of Trent (1545-1563), "it has been the conviction of the church of God. . .that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood." (CCC #1376)

Who brings about this conversion? Christ Himself, through the Holy Spirit. Thus St. John Chrysostom declares:

"It is not man that causes the things offered to become the Body and Blood of Christ, but he who was crucified for us, Christ himself. The priest, in the role of Christ, pronounces these words, but their power and grace are God's. This is my body, he says. This word transforms the things offered."

And St. Ambrose says about this conversion:

"Be convinced that this is not what nature has formed, but what the blessing has consecrated. The power of the blessing prevails over that of nature, because by the blessing nature itself is changed... Could not Christ's word, which can make from nothing what did not exist, change existing things into what they were not before? It is no less a feat to give things their original nature than to change their nature."

(quoted in CCC, #1375)

One may add that it is no less a feat than to change what is normally invisible to what is visible, as at Naju.

Thirty years after Pope Paul VI defended and explained the principles of the Holy Eucharist, the Lord Himself--in His goodness--intervened again, showing in a physical way, observable by witnesses, that in the Mass the bread and wine truly become His Body and Blood, the summit of His love for us and the source of our love for neighbour and the world. Let us rejoice, for this is the day the Lord has made!